March 27, 2012, 5:48PM

Congress needs to find a way around its own obstructions and deal with the counties' crisis. The collapse of the transportation package process should not turn Oregon counties into roadkill. Full story »

February 15, 2012, 4:44PM

TOLEDO, OREGON - February 15, 2012 - Workers at the Western Cascade Industries sawmill in Toledo, Ore., could see more timber flowing through their log yard if things go well in Washington. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

February 15, 2012, 4:44PM

TOLEDO, OREGON - February 15, 2012 - Workers at the Western Cascade Industries sawmill sort lumber on the green chain in Toledo. They could see more timber flowing through their log yard if things go well in Washington. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

February 15, 2012, 4:44PM

TOLEDO, OREGON - February 15, 2012 - Workers at the Western Cascade Industries sawmill in Toledo, Ore., could see more timber flowing through their log yard if things go well in Washington. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

February 15, 2012, 4:44PM

TOLEDO, OREGON - February 15, 2012 - Workers at the Western Cascade Industries sawmill in Toledo, Ore., could see more timber flowing through their log yard if things go well in Washington. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

January 23, 2012, 5:52PM

Sure, you can shift county road and school funds around like deck chairs on the Costa Concordia cruise ship, and you can try to persuade the people who live in some of the poorest communities in Oregon to raise their taxes. But in the end, there is only one way to ensure a future for Oregon's rural timber counties: Get commercial logging and other economic activities going again on federal forests. Full story »

December 22, 2011, 2:08PM

Shane Jimerfield: The economic reality in rural western Oregon counties is not quite what is being portrayed by The Oregonian and Reps. DeFazio, Walden and Schrader. Indeed there is a fiscal crisis that county governments will face with the halt of the federal subsidy in September 2012, known as county payments. What they never talk about is the reality of why these counties are so broke. It's quite simple: excessively low property taxes. Full story »

October 22, 2011, 11:11AM

Pete Sorenson: To solve county funding issues over the long-term, we may have to search for new ideas, like shifting management of the interspersed BLM forests to the U.S. Forest Service to save a huge chunk of the money currently spent to manage those lands. We could also look at stemming the flow of timber overseas to China -- a practice that kills Oregon jobs. And we should explore opportunities for payments from the carbon sequestration our federal forests do naturally through their growth. Whatever the ultimate solution to our county funding issues, history has taught us that we can't cut our way to prosperity. We've tried that route and this is the mess we're left with. Full story »

August 31, 2011, 8:06PM

July 23, 2011, 4:09PM

It's already tough out there in the Other Oregon, with double-digit unemployment and a housing market flat on its back. But if nothing is done to avert the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal timber payments or respond to a potentially devastating court ruling, it's going to get much worse. Full story »

December 13, 2009, 3:42PM

It's not pretty, the logrolling that was necessary to extend federal payments to counties in Oregon and other Western states dominated by public timberlands that no longer provide promised economic benefits to rural communities. But the economic reality in these counties isn't pretty, either. Full story »